Method and System for Adapting a Radiation Therapy Treatment Plan Based on a Biological Model

1. A method of adapting a treatment plan, the method comprising: preparing a treatment plan for a patient for treating a patient condition, the preparation including acquiring an internal reference image of the patient; acquiring three-dimensional internal images of the patient in substantially a treatment position; performing deformable registration of the images; acquiring data relating to a radiation dose delivered to the patient; applying a biological model to relate the radiation dose delivered and a patient effect; and adapting subsequent dose delivery of the treatment plan in a radiation delivery device based on the deformable registration and the biological model.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the treatment plan is a radiation therapy treatment plan.

3. A method as set forth in claim 1 and further comprising tuning the biological model based on an effect of the radiation dose on the patient.

4. A method as set forth in claim 3 wherein the effect of the radiation dose on the patient can be determined using one of a patient marker and a biological tracer.

5. A method as set forth in claim 1 and further comprising tracking how the patient effect relates to the biological model over a period of time.

6. A method as set forth in claim 5 wherein the period of time is a lifetime of the patient.

7. A method as set forth in claim 5 and further comprising adjusting the biological model parameters based on the relation.

8. A method as set forth in claim 1 and further comprising adapting the treatment plan based on the patient effect.

9. A method as set forth in claim 1 and further comprising evaluating whether a region of interest of the patient moved and wherein the act of adapting the treatment plan incorporates the information relating to motion of the region of interest.

10. A method as set forth in claim 1 and further comprising positioning the patient for a treatment based upon the patient effect of the radiation dose delivered to the patient in prior treatments.

11. A method as set forth in claim 1 and further comprising monitoring the patient effects for trends and adapting the treatment plan based on the trends.

12. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the act of adapting the treatment plan further comprises automatically selecting a biological model for evaluation, and automatically applying the biological model to adapt the treatment plan.

13. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the biological model is a mathematical model.

14. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the biological model is an empirical model.

15. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the biological model is a biological effect based on an anatomical influence.

16. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the biological model is based on patient metrics.

17. A method as set forth in claim 1 and further comprising performing genetic testing to identify whether the patient condition being treated is predisposed to reoccur.

18. A computer program embodied by a computer readable medium capable of being executed by a computer, the computer program for use in a treatment system, the computer program comprising: a treatment plan module operable to generate a treatment plan for a patient, the plan based at least in part on an internal reference image of the patient; an image acquisition module operable to acquire a three-dimensional internal image of at least a portion of the patient in substantially a treatment position; a deformation module operable to generate a deformable registration between the reference image and the acquired image; and a modeling module operable to relate a radiation dose delivered to the patient and an effect of the radiation dose on the patient and to adapt subsequent dose delivery of the treatment plan based on the deformable registration and a biological model.